Interview with Joshua Ormond Star of The Fields

A mystery horror thriller which follows a young boy (played by Joshua Ormond) and his family (Tara Reid, Faust Checho & Cloris Leachman) as they are terrorized by an unseen presence in the surrounding fields of their small town Pennsylvania home in 1973. Directed by Tom Mattera and Dave Mazzoni, this 2011 suspense film is supposedly based on true events.

I had the pleasure of having a nice phone conversation with the young actor, Joshua Ormond, who stars in the new thriller The Fields with Cloris Leachman and Tara Reid. Joshua tells me about The Fields, life as a child actor, and what his hopes are for the future.

Nick- Hi Joshua, how are you doing

Joshua- I am good, how are you?

Nick- I am good. Where are you calling from? Are you in California?

Joshua- No, I am actually heading out tomorrow morning on an airplane. Right now I’m in South Jersey.

Nick- Oh wow, what are you doing out there?

Joshua- We live in North Jersey in Weehawken and we just come down here for vacation.

Nick- Do you like it there in South Jersey?

Joshua- Yeah it’s really fun. I used to live here but then I moved up to Weehawken and we are gonna move back here this summer.

Nick- How old are you?

Joshua- Eleven. I am almost twelve my birthday is in a few days.

Nick- Well happy birthday! That sounds like fun. What are you gonna do for your birthday?

Joshua- Actually, I am gonna be on the plane back here from California. It’s gonna stink being on the plane for my birthday but I am going to have to ask the pilot to make an announcement, “Hey, it’s Josh Ormond’s birthday today!” (laughs)

Nick- It will still be fun though, you can make the best of it.

Joshua- Yeah.

Nick- I just saw you in the new thriller The Fields and you did a great job I have to say.

Joshua- Thank you.

Nick- You played Steven, the young kid whose parents are going though marital problems and you have to go to stay with your grandparents. How much fun did you have playing this role with Cloris Leachman and Tara Reid and the other cast members?

Joshua- It was really fun because before the shoot we had everybody basically spend a lot of time with each other, except for Cloris because she didn’t have a lot of time and was going to so many different places. So we basically got to know each other before the movie and it was fun. During the movie it was great and Cloris was amazing. She was funny on and off set. Everybody else was great. Bev, who played Papi was great. Faust, who was my dad was great. They were all nice. Tara Reid was nice. Everybody was nice. Even the crew was nice. The camera people, the directors Tom and Dave were really nice. When I used to live down in South Jersey they used to come to our house and we’d order pizza and play hockey or something like that. We’d have fun and discuss things. The whole crew was just amazing and it was just very fun.

Nick- That’s awesome. I talked to Cloris yesterday and she said you did such a great job in the movie.

Joshua- Thanks. She was really good too. The producer said that it was exactly like how his grandmother was so I think that means she did a pretty god job.

Nick- She was just like my grandmother too. I live in Ohio and my grandmother was just like her. She always would yell and make you feel nervous all the time when you were around her.

Joshua- Right. Cause you never know when she’s just gonna blow. (laughs)

Nick- It was a scary movie, did you ever get scared on the set or was it pretty calm?

Joshua- It was actually really calm. Everything was basically explained to me. For example, they would basically say, “ You’re walking through the farm and you are gonna open this door and this guy’s gonna come out and you have to act scared, scream a little bit.” They basically prep you for it but the one thing they kept me in the dark for, on purpose, was when I was in the abandoned park.

Nick- In that fun house?

Joshua- Yeah in the fun house and they didn’t let me see the costumes because they wanted me to actually be shocked and a little scared by what they actually look like. That part was a little bit more real than the other parts where I was more prepared. It wasn’t exactly how you think I would have felt in the movie when I was on the set.

Nick- I have to say, I’d be really scared because I’ve seen movies like that and if I was running through those fields, or going in that fun house, I’d be scared and I’m 30 years old. If I was eleven I’d be super scared!

Joshua- Yeah. (laughs)

Nick- You’ve been acting for a little while now and you played your first in the 2008 film Bittersweet. Is that right?

Joshua- Yeah. That was awhile ago. I was pretty young.

Nick- That was your first role right? Do you remember much of it?

Joshua- Yeah. I remember my sister’s hand was in the movie. It was just her hand though. (laughs) She was there with us and I remember the girl who was in the scene with me. We’re still friends now and sometimes we see her at auditions and stuff. We’re always reminded of the movie.

Nick- I haven’t seen that film but it is on my radar to see because I saw you were in it. Is that a scary movie too?

Joshua- I actually don’t know because when I was going to watch it at the screening my mom didn’t want me to see it because of the things that were in the movie. So she gave me earphones and my DS and I played my DS throughout the whole movie except for the part that I was in.

Nick- You got to see this movie though right?

Joshua- Yeah I’ve seen it a couple times.

Nick- You filmed it in Pennsylvania?

Joshua- Yeah. Pennsylvania, Kunkletown.

Nick- Pennsylvania is kind of a scary place sometimes. It’s really old you know?

Joshua- Yeah it is. I have my grandma and my cousins who live up there in Philadelphia.

Nick- Did you get to see them when you were filming?

Joshua- No I didn’t really have that much time. I got to see them a little bit afterwards.

Nick- Well that’s cool.

Nick- What got you into acting Joshua? Did you just kind of fall into it or did you know you wanted to do it? Did you start going to auditions and that kind of stuff?

Joshua- Well actually it started out with my sister. My mom brought my sister but couldn’t find a babysitter or it was just too much of a hassle, so she just brought me to the agents office with them. The people were looking at Gabby and were like, “What about your son?” and she was like yeah he can try it out. That’s basically it. I think a lot of people like my hair. (laughs)

Nick- Yeah you have the curly hair.

Joshua- Yeah.

Nick- Well that’s nice because I’m 30 and I still don’t know what I want to do for my life and you’re 11 and you already know what you want to do for your life. That’s pretty cool.

Joshua- Yeah so when everybody’s in class and asks you to write down on this piece of paper what you want to be when you grow up, I’m like “That’s a no-brainer.” (laughs)

Nick- That’s what I was going to ask you. What about school? You’re so young, do you go to school on the set? Do you do movies in the summertime when you are off?

Joshua- Well, on the set of the movie I had a tutor but yeah I still go to regular school. When I have jobs like that I have tutors. I just finished up a movie with Johnny Knoxville and Patton Oswalt a couple months ago and I had a tutor on that.

Nick- What movie was that? Was that Robot and Frank?

Joshua- No, I did that too but I didn’t need a tutor for that. That was with Frank (Langella) and I would just kind of get my homework from what I missed and did it at home.

Joshua- Johnny Knoxville was really nice and in the movie there are like nine kids and he was friendly with everyone. When we would stay in the hotel he was nice and we would get pictures with him.

Nick- He’s a wild guy isn’t he?

Joshua- Yeah but he was actually pretty calm. He wasn’t too crazy.

Nick- I’ve seen his movies he has done for MTV and they can be pretty insane.

Joshua- Yeah they can. (laughs)

Nick- Tell me about the Robot and Frank movie, you played a character named Freckles right?

Joshua- Yes, although it made no sense because there was a kid named Flattop who had a lot of freckles and I was named Freckles. I know they are pretty crazy names but I think they could of done a little bit better of choosing what names go with which person. Don’t you think the people will get a little bit confused when the kid with the freckles isn’t called Freckles? (laughs)

Nick- Maybe they’ll digitally add freckles on your face.

Joshua- I know. That would be funny if they did. (laughs)

Nick- It was fun though right?

Joshua- Yeah it was fun. The one scene that I was in with the robot was actually pretty funny because the lady that was in the suit looked like a storm trooper. It was all white and where the joints were supposed to move it was black. It was cool because we had to push it around and punk with it. We’d run and try to race to the tree to see who got there first. She was really hot though and when she got too hot they would put her on a dolly and put an umbrella over her and feed her water and more water.

Nick- That’s what it takes to be a movie star right?

Joshua- Yeah even if it’s like that.

Nick- When you were growing up who did you look up to as an actor?

Joshua- That’s a hard question. When I was little I never thought about it. I was actually thinking about it a couple days ago. I haven’t exactly decided yet.

Nick- Well you want to be your own actor right?

Joshua- Yeah, that’s fine. (laughs)

Nick- I wondered if you had seen an actor out there and said “Hey wow I want to do that”, but it sounds like you were just in the right place at the right time.

Joshua- Yeah basically.

Nick- You plan on acting for a long time huh?

Joshua- Yeah, it’s been about 7 or 8 years now.

Nick- Well it looks like you got a long career ahead of you and you did a great job on The Fields. You were the star of the movie so I’m sure that was a lot of pressure for you. Thanks for talking with me for a little while and I wish you the best of luck Joshua.

Joshua- No problem. Thanks!

The Fields will be released on April 24th 2012. Interview by Nick Leyland from Movie Room Reviews.